The national football team Lone Star have begun preparation ahead of their first match against Mauritania in the 2018 African Nations Championship qualification on Friday, July 14, in Monrovia.

The tournament will involve only non-professional players; that is, players who play in the domestic league.

According to the Liberia Football Association, 26 players have been selected from the various clubs in the domestic league and will today begin training sessions at the LFA Technical Center in Careysburg.

A total of 48 CAF member national teams are split into zones according to their regional affiliations.

Liberia is in Zone A (West) along with Mauritania, Sierra Leon, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Gambia, and Mali.

Four winners from the first round matches will move to the third round, where the last two winners of the zone will qualify for the last 16 of the tournament.

A total of 16 teams will qualify to play in the final tournament including Kenya, who qualified automatically as host nation.

The 26 players selected by the LFA are:

Via Liberia Observer!

By Alvin Worzi

With less than 105 days to the holding of the presidential and legislative elections on October 10, the National Elections Commission (NEC) yesterday certificated four new political parties, bringing the total number of recognized and registered political parties in the country to 26.

The four new political parties are the Redemption Democratic Congress (RDC), Liberia Restoration Party (LRP), the Liberia for Prosperity Party (LPP), and the Democratic Justice Party (DJP).

Shortly after the parties’ certification, NEC chairman Jerome George Korkoya urged each of their representatives to conduct their political activities in the ambit of the commission’s rules and regulations.

The NEC is the only body by law clothed with the mandate to certificate political parties and conduct elections for all public offices in the country
For that, Korkoya said multi-party democracy provides the space for political debates to enhance and promote smooth and peaceful democratic activities.

“We are certificating you at a very significant time when the country is in the middle of crucial elections. By certificating you, it means that you are now part and parcel of our democratic process,” Korkoya among other things told representatives of the political parties.

He added that the accreditation of political parties is guaranteed by the Liberian Constitution. Yesterday’s certification of the four additional parties brings to 26 the total number of registered political parties gearing up for the October polls.

Reverend Victor Saylee Sr., the RDC chairman who received the certificate of accreditation from the NEC on behalf of his colleagues, said the party is poised to redeem the country by putting it back in the hands of Liberians after several years of hardship.

Rev. Saylee said RDC’s quest is to ensure that the class system, which has done more harm than good for the country, is totally eradicated.

“We want to thank NEC for recognizing us today. Liberia is at a crossroads and needs redemption, and that’s why we are here to ensure that we deliver the country. The party is here to solve the country’s many woes,” Rev. Saylee said.

Reverend Jomah Woiwor, LRP chairman, said despite the late accreditation of the party, the leadership stands strong and ready to capture state power at the ensuing October poll.

He said Liberians will have a say in the running of their own country, irrespective of status.

“The LRP is here to make those necessary corrections of those mistakes that were made in the past. We are strong and remain so to capture state power in October,” Woiwor declared.

By Gloria T. Tamba
Presley Tenwah, the Acting chairman of the Patriotic Entrepreneurs of Liberia (PATEL) who organized the three-day shutdown of businesses (Jan. 31-Feb. 2) in Monrovia, told journalists yesterday that the government has up to Sunday to take steps to reduce high tariffs on imported goods, ensure stability in the rate of the Liberian dollar to the US dollar and end harassment of petty traders by the police.
Tenwah said if the three requests do not get the attention of the Liberian government, his organization will plan a massive protest next week that will include shutting down gas stations.
PATEL’s constituency includes the Liberian Business Association, Car Dealers Association, and the National Petty Traders Association.
Tenwah said all business associations were notified of the end of PATEL’s three-day protest which included the shutting down of businesses in and around Monrovia, and called on them to resume normal business as of today, Friday, February 3.
Tenwah told journalists that the decision to end the three-day strike stemmed from PATEL fulfilling its original protest, and also to give the Liberian government time to live up to their demands.
Tenwah said: “We are ending the strike action to give the Liberian government the chance to find lasting solutions, but we must state that we will resume the strike action to also involve gas stations if there are no fruitful results from the assurances we have received.
“If the government does not move to do what we asked, we will enforce Plan B, which will include, as I said, gas stations; and commercial vehicles will be stopped from plying the streets.
“The strike we have carried out took our peaceful citizens unaware and so we are now giving them the chance in the next three to four days to purchase their food and other items they need in their homes so that they can be fully prepared for the next action,” Tenwah said.
He said the association’s decision to end the protest came about willingly, not based on intimidation or threat from anyone or group. “It is meant to have peaceful citizens exercise their rights and have the necessary items they need to move on for the next days.”
He extended thanks to the Liberian people and all members who stood with them “in the struggle to get justice,” especially the Fula, Nigerian, Indian, and Lebanese business associations and National Customs Brokers Association, among others.
Meanwhile, PATEL’s action prompted President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to call her Cabinet and Economic Management Team, which were expected to meet yesterday, February 2, to address concerns raised by the business community.
President Sirleaf made the disclosure in a brief statement to journalists upon her arrival on Wednesday, February 1, at the Roberts International Airport from the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Although she expressed concern over the protest, she then alleged that “Some of those involved with the protest are part of the problem, and some of those businesspeople who closed their shops in protest were engaged in hoarding” of foreign exchange

The Number of People Enslaved

The number of people enslaved by Muslims has been a hotly debated topic, especially when the millions of Africans forced from their homelands are considered.

Some historians estimate that between A.D. 650 and 1900, 10 to 20 million people were enslaved by Arab slave traders. Others believe over 20 million enslaved Africans alone had been delivered through the trans-Sahara route alone to the Islamic world.

Dr. John Alembellah Azumah in his 2001 book, The Legacy of Arab-Islam in Africa estimates that over 80 million Black people more died en route.

Arab Enslavers Practiced Genetic Warfare

The Arab slave trade typically dealt in the sale of castrated male slaves. Black boys between the age of 8 and 12 had their scrotums and penises completely amputated to prevent them from reproducing. About six of every 10 boys  bled to death during the procedure, according to some sources, but the high price brought by eunuchs on the market made the practice profitable.

Some men were castrated to be eunuchs in domestic service and the practice of neutering male slaves was not limited to only Black males. “The calipha in Baghdad at the beginning of the 10th Century had 7,000 black eunuchs and 4,000 white eunuchs in his palace,” writes author Ronald Segal in his 2002 book, Islam’s Black Slaves: The Other Black Diaspora.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Chairperson of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), leads a High-level delegation of the sub-regional body to The Gambia today.

According to an Executive Mansion release, the ECOWAS delegation will include President Muhammadu Buhari of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, the Special Representative for West Africa of the United Nations Secretary General, Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, among others.

Recently President Sirleaf as Chairperson of the ECOWAS Authority on Sunday issued a statement on the current political situation in The Gambia, urging President Jammeh to respect the election results, which reflect the freely expressed will of the Gambian people.

The statement also expressed support for the joint statement issued by the African Union Commission, the ECOWAS Commission and the United Nations, and further called on the Gambian people to remain peaceful and calm.

The moment and impatient driver drowns with his lorry.